he United States presidential election of 1860 was the 19th quadrennial presidential election. The election was held on Tuesday November 6 1860 and served as the immediate impetus for the outbreak of the American Civil War. The United States had been divided during the 1850s on questions surrounding the expansion of slavery and the rights of slave owners. In 1860 these issues broke the Democratic Party into Northern and Southern factions and a new Constitutional Union Party appeared. In the face of a divided opposition the Republican Party dominant in the North secured a majority of the electoral votes putting Abraham Lincoln in the White House with almost no support from the South.